A Lecture by W. C. Johnston at the Plainfield Meeting, Monday, July 15th, 1889.

(Jno. 14:16; 16:7-13; Acts 1:, 2:)

One might say that the thought has been before us in these meetings again and again about the presence of the Holy Ghost. It only expressed what was before me, I might say, on each occasion, before the word was uttered. How we need to get back in simplicity to that thought, that the Holy Spirit has come,-to get back to what it is to own His presence ; to be so simple, so dependent, that unhinderedly He might act in power for the glorifying of Christ! In that case, there will be the ministry the saints need, there will be the ministry that sinners need. Then we read here, in Acts 1:5, "John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Again in the eighth verse, " Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."Then the second chapter, " And when the day of Pentecost was . fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."Further, in Acts 5:30:"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him." Again, what we find in Acts 7:55:"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Again, from Acts 13:2 :"As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, ' Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.' And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus." And just again, in Acts 15:8, speaking about the work among the Gentiles :"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us ; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." And lastly, ver. 28:"It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us."

The one thought already expressed is what one would desire to emphasize ; but what a theme ! and who is equal to so bring it out that hearts may be impressed by its reality, and that there might be that which would abide,- so abide, that whenever I open this, book alone the first thought might be that the blessed One about whom it speaks is at God's right hand, and that there is another Person nigh, even dwelling within me,-God's blessed Spirit, who wrote the book, and whose joy it is to give its meaning and its power, unfolding God's thoughts about His well-beloved Son? I might just give a fact that may lend emphasis as to why this presses upon me. When God first led me to look at some of these expressions when quite a youth, I read them and re-read them, and meditated upon them, and said, "Is there not something about the Holy Spirit in the Word that is not usually taught?" And many a time the longing came, and with it the prayer and the searching, that it might be known. Books all bearing on the Spirit, orthodox or heterodox, were looked through. Then, taking the Bible alone, I began to go through it as a whole with that one thought, that God might give the truth connected with this important fact about the presence of the Holy Ghost. What was the result? It changed the current of my thoughts ; it changed my work, my position,-yea, every thing. Deliverance, in a measure, had been seen before; but till then, I did not see things in the light altogether to have the described effect all at once. Even then, separation truth, as we may speak of it, had not come before me. The truth about the Church, as it is now taught, I knew not. The truth about the Lord's coming I was so prejudiced against that I would not have gone to a meeting if I had known there was to be a lecture given on the subject. But this I did feel:I wanted to know what God could bring out about the person of the Holy Ghost; and God met me there; and while looking at Scripture, and the very passages I have read, the thought dawned on me, "There has been a change since Christ was on the earth :-there is a Person in heaven who was here :there is a Person come to earth since Christ has gone on high." And from that point the opening out of the wonderful thought of the mystery-the Church of God-came home in a marvelous way. And next, the thought, " Why, that's the bride, and He is the Bridegroom !" and His coming was accepted as a glad reality. The thousand objections about that subject were at once swept away. And why I feel so interested in this truth about the Spirit is simply this:that it was from that point of view any little progress God vouchsafed was given,-it was from seeing and learning a little about the person and presence of the Holy Ghost.

Then look at what struck me after that in the first and second of Acts. Take the verses as they come before us, and just read what we find there in Acts 1:In the second verse, " He was taken up ;" then again in the ninth verse, "He was taken up ;" again in the eleventh verse, Who is "taken up;" again in the twenty-second verse, "He was taken up." The first of Acts is characterized by man being in a new place. That is the One who was here, and over whom heaven could open, and the Father could say, " This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Spirit rested upon Him, and that blessed, perfect One, having accomplished the will of His Father, .is now raised from the dead, and declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness. We find then, in the first of Acts, these words, four times (surely, not repeated in vain !):He was "taken up ;" and so we get man in a new place at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Now, then, for Acts 2:2, 17, 33, 39. Though not the expression there, you have at least the fact four times, that the Holy Spirit came down. What a magnificent change ! What a new opening of the ways of God ! A Man, in whom all His desires were met, taken up and seated at God's right hand ; thence from Him, having received the promise of the Father, (Acts 2:four times emphasizes that fact,) the Holy Ghost came down. You know, if you take the earlier books and look at Jehovah, the Angel of Jehovah, and those touches so wonderful and suggestive, do they not lead the mind to the Son-to the One who in due time was God manifest in the flesh ? Yet, until that Babe was born in Bethlehem, He is not here in the sense we have to think of Him now as having been here. So, in the Old Testament, from the first of Genesis right through, you find the working and the power of the Holy Ghost. Again and again, in the most distinct way, you find what is being done under His control; but not until that Man has been "taken up" and redemption fully accomplished do you find with distinctness that the Holy Ghost has come down. That is what we see in Acts 2:, viz., the blessed presence on earth of the person of the Holy Ghost. As one (now with the Lord,) said, in a striking way, and it struck and struck as I heard him say it, " Why," he said in substance, " at the beginning, through owning the presence of the Holy Ghost as at Pentecost, there were three thousand souls converted under one sermon ; now, through overlooking or ignoring the presence of the Holy Ghost, you may have three thousand sermons for one soul." Do we not need, I repeat, though it be so well known, to have our minds stirred up by way of remembrance, to the fact that there has been a wondrous change since Jesus died and rose again? He has been taken up; thence, from Him the Holy Ghost has come down. You find that Acts 1:begins with, " All that Jesus began both to do and to teach." No thought of ceasing:the One who was at work while among men continues at work still. Who is the One specially carrying on this work ? This book, you know, is called "The Acts of the Apostles;" you also know it would be better named " The Acts of the Holy Ghost." Then let us connect what is done with the One who has gone on high, and also with the One who is actually here. Then, as with an army, you get to the right base; but, through losing the base, or through losing the sense of the presence of the One who is on the throne, as acting through the One who is now on earth, there is sure to be weakness and defeat. You will remember the terrible catastrophe in the Soudan. Hicks Pasha left what is known as the base of the army, and with his column plunged into the desert, only to be, you might say, annihilated. An army away from its base is soon rendered helpless, and hence such a catastrophe Look at the thought, and think of the professing church to-day. Does it not supply the key to what has been so manifest ? It has been like an army away from its base. The professing church has lost the sense of being linked with the Lord on the throne. Satan cannot hide the cross; he can use it to adorn people, or put it on the spire, or on the gable of a building, or on a tombstone. It is impossible to hide the cross; but mark what he does do. " The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." But " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Oh, depend upon it, it is a precious bit of truth when the devil has so set his whole strength in the way of keeping a cloud of dust between men and that One on the throne. And even with saints, he tries to blind the mind, that the light from that face should not so fill and thrill the heart as it ought. Has he not indeed succeeded to an alarming extent in keeping this truth from the saints? The fact itself he could not, but the power of it he has kept from thousands of saints of God, -the power that is known by the heart being in actual association with that One who was taken up. There has not been the knowing or realizing what it is to be associated with the Man who is at God's right hand. Next, is there any thing else he has so sadly succeeded in as this, that he has obscured and almost taken away the glorious fact of the Holy Ghost's presence on earth ? Oh, if. we want to hear what was from the beginning and walk in it, look well to these two momentous thoughts. Acts 1:gives you a Man at the right hand of God in heaven :Acts 2:gives God the Spirit among men on earth. Heaven has a Man to sit on the throne of God :earth has God from heaven to be in the hearts of men below ; and the two are linked together. And as you maintain the two facts, and your soul is brought into the power of these great foundation-truths, oh ! every thing for what is personal, for what is corporate, for what is required for service or for worship, will it not be found in its place? Surely it will.

But now just see what follows in Acts 5:, and there you find evil at once beginning to manifest itself in the Church. Yes, it is within. You find in chap. 3:the devil at work without, and they are suffering from what is around them ; but now you find the devil at work within. But what is the check ? What is that which this terrible sin is used to show up in the light? What is it that this, as it were raises a beacon of warning concerning ? Does the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, in all its terrible character, not bring out in a most momentous way this great fact, that the Holy Ghost was there, and that He must not be ignored ? We need to look at that again :the apostle speaks not of the saints, nor of the apostles ; but he shows that this has been done unto the Spirit of God. There has been One present who has been ignored, and this is so signalized that you find judgment marking it upon the spot. We need, I say, as saints, to look further at how this is stamped in the beginning of Acts 5:They are charged with having agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord. His presence was challenged, and solemnly proved by judgment.

Now look at what is put in that thirty-second verse. "We are His witnesses of these things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost." Take a court of law, and say there is a case under trial. Then you want witnesses. Will a document do? It may be admitted as evidence, but you do not think of a document as a witness ; you think of a witness as a person. Then the word "witness" at once gives distinctness, as it presents personality. A witness, properly speaking, is a person. In the case supposed, a witness is such in the place and at the time where the matter in question is being judged. Now take that thought, and you have the Spirit's person and the Spirit's presence. Think of heaven ; there is nothing in question there about the Lord Jesus Christ. The angels, the redeemed, God Himself, are agreed ; or, as we have it, "The mind of heaven is one." There is nothing in question ; then there is no witness, as there is none needed. As is well known, if judges come on circuit, and there are no prisoners to be tried, it is a maiden court:no witnesses are called. Then you find nothing in question. So in heaven :Jesus has the highest place. He was taken up ; He was seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and they delight to own Him as worthy of that place, and you do not need witnesses there. Even the Holy Ghost is not thus thought of as a witness in heaven. But, mark you, the Spirit was there, and He saw and knew what took place when that blessed One rose from among yon little company when He was nigh to Bethany. You might think of the disciples as witnesses. Well, they had to say what they knew for themselves-each for himself, in his own way. One might begin where he was met in the boat; another, where he was picked up at the receipt of custom ; another, like Philip, where he was taken up by the way, and from that point,-when he was first in company with the Lord,-right through, what he saw and heard and knew for himself. And where does it end ? In the cloud, when the cloud received Him out of their sight. Here see the source of their testimony :what each for himself witnessed,-what each for himself actually knew. It ranges from the point where they met Him to the point where they lost Him in the cloud. Now was that sufficient? Was it all of which He was worthy? Was it all the heart of God desired to be told out about Him ? No ! a thousand times No ! Above the cloud the Conqueror is still rising, until He takes the highest station at God's right hand, made Lord and Christ, God raising Him as a Prince and a Saviour. The Holy Ghost witnessed all, knew all, entered into all as God can ; and soon, down to Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, He comes, a new presence, if not a new power; though His influence may have been traced from creation, you find Him now on earth, as a witness, testifying to what the Lord had received and become, on the throne. And mark my point, if there is no controversy in heaven about the blessed person of the Lord, there was a controversy at Jerusalem ; there is a controversy still with the world who has rejected Him. There is where matters are in question ; there is where the character and claims of the Lord Jesus are being canvassed ; then, there you have the witness. He is now present in the place and at the time where and while Christ's claims are denied. The Spirit has come, and He abides as a witness.

But now what have we ? These men who saw and knew all things connected with Christ's earthly career, until they lost Him in the cloud ; now this heavenly witness, who saw and knew all that took place when He was seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high ; and now they are together, and you have a complete, wonderful testimony as to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How full and blessed is the testimony ! The Holy Ghost also is a witness. As a witness He abides on earth, while Christ is on the Father's throne in heaven. Oh to get that thought home to one's soul in power ! In a feeble way once I put it, and one who had been in fellowship some seventeen years went around amongst the saints afterward, and said, " I never so saw and felt that fact that the Holy Ghost is here." And many a testimony of the same kind could be given ; not merely getting past the fact of His being an influence, to the fact of His be-being a Person ; but grasping as by His own power what His presence means. Oh, look at it as it comes out here. Any thing, every thing, now amongst the saints is looked at with reference to the presence of the One who has come, and who is ever in harmony with the One who has gone. There is no losing of the base where that One sits commanding all, and with whom are all our supplies. These is no losing of the active power now present to guide and control. You have both vividly kept in view if you think of the One taken up and the other as having come down ; and now those who are His should be thus in harmony with Himself, to bear testimony in the world that has cast Him out. If it is the sending forth of others, you find the Spirit saith, " Separate Me Paul and Barnabas." If it is considering questions that are likely to cause trouble, or are showing that they are on the verge of division, it is that "it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." How one might go on and multiply instances and quotations, all bringing out that fact that they have got hold of the truth that He is come, and that they act and speak and labor as those who own that the Holy Spirit is here !

Now for ourselves, let me apply it by saying, I know not about Congress so distinctly, but take Parliament, as one may speak of that with a little more certainty, and in that assembly of hundreds of members, when is there to be a hearing ? When you catch the eye of the Speaker. I suppose in Congress you have also to get the Speaker's eye, otherwise you are speaking to the wind ; it is of no account. Is there not something for us there ? In open meetings, in worship-meetings, how needful it is to catch the eye of the Speaker ! I need to be dependent, and really exercised, to be sure before God that I have something by the Spirit of God. Oh how solemn and how wonderful, when it is real! It will not be the next moment that a brother has ceased that a hymn will be given out or a word spoken. If you wait to catch the eye of the Speaker, you will think twice before you speak. A little waiting will be no loss. I said to several, after our happy time (as I believe it was such) yesterday morning, that there was a thought I never dreamed of-never had in my mind, that I remember of, in a meeting :I was about to rise once and just say, " Could we not have five minutes' silence?" Yes, " Could we not have five minutes' silence?" Oh, it is a wonderful thing when we get to that fact that we are gathered unto Him who is at God's right hand, and that the Holy Ghost is here to lead and guide ! How often do we speak without getting the eye of the Speaker! You know, the one who rises has to catch the eye of the Speaker, and so he has the floor. Every other must stand aside :the one who has thus got his eye is to be heard. We want to know a little more of this in the power and joy of being dependent on the Lord, and knowing the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit. How one might go on ! but take just a thought as to service, or as to one's path, in owning the Spirit's presence. It occurs to me that I might put it in a way that you might remember it. San Francisco is famous for its cable-roads, and any body who has seen them will not forget them soon. Along those streets, over those hills, miles and miles, runs that wonderful system of cable-cars. I will tell you what I have thought. These roads have given me the back-bone of a very good sermon. I will tell you why. Look at the track. You will not go far unless you get on to the track-the rails. Well, to me, that suggests God's will. That is what the Spirit leads along. We want the track of the divine will. Then, if you are going, you have to take your seat in the car. God has given us His precious Word, and whatever you want you will find here :if you are asking for any thing, longing for any thing, and if you haven't got the Word of God for it, you cannot sit down, you cannot rest with the certainty that thing can be accomplished ; but if you get on the track of the divine will, and can just take your seat, you might say, in the car of the divine Word, then you can have that certainty. What then ? There in the cable underground is the unseen power;-it is where you are, it is at the very end of the journey, it is all the way along, it is present every where. So is the blessed Spirit of God. As the cable works round its goal, so the Spirit moves in connection with the throne. Then you get on to the track ; just take your seat in the car, and there you will find there is connection with the cable, and you will go along according to the power there displayed. In that case, you might think even, as in San Francisco, (although as associated with that place it is not an appropriate suggestion,) yet, if you will take it for what it suggests, you can go to "the Golden Gate." Well, to see that there is what God has marked out as His will,-that is the track we want to discover each for himself. He has given us His precious Word. We want to stand, or, if you like, sit down, on that Word. We never do more than when we are resting, simply resting, on the Word of God. Then there is no effort, no worry, no hurry. We are connected with an unseen power, and that is connected with the throne. The Spirit is here; He is yonder, and all the way along; and how blessed when we find what it is practically, definitely, to own and act as yielded to the blessed Spirit of God ! W.C.J.